How to make audio files smaller to fit more music on your portable player?

We all want more for less:)We will not speak about quality assuming that portable player are not home stereo systems and do not produce that high quality anyway. Besides, numerous tests show that average listener does not distinguish lossless WAV from 192 kbps MP3.

There are several ways to make audio files smaller in size. Everything depends on the source format. If you have a track in uncompressed or lossless compression formats (WAV, AIFF, AU, CDA, FLAC, APE, WV, TTA, M4A, WMA lossless, or OFR) you should convert it to a lossy compression format (MP3, OGG Vorbis, WMA lossy, AAC, MPC). That will significantly reduce the size of your track. If you convert the whole album you save megabytes of space.

Another case is when you have a track in a lossy compression format and want to make it even smaller. For example, you have an MP3 file - can you reduce the size? Sure you can. The easiest way is to lower bit rate. Bit rate defines how much physical space one second of audio takes in kilobits. The lower bitrate - the smaller file size. We do not advise to go lower than 128 kbps.

You can also convert your MP3 file to the format with a better compression scheme. But it depends on the certain file. Many people convert MP3 to AAC to gain free space but you won't save that much (some dozens of kilobytes on each track). You can also convert to MPC format which compresses music very well but .mpc files are not supported by most of portable players:( The only way is to test yourself. Convert your files to different lossy formats and decide which is best for you. Note that 5$ version of Factory Audio Converter is not limited to a number of formats or conversions.